GHMC e-cars to hit Hyderabad roads soon

Hyderabad: Electric Vehicles (EVs) are all set to hit city roads soon. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation decided to replace its hired vehicles with EVs.

This was under the National Mission on Electric Mobility, where all existing vehicles would be replaced with EVs by 2030. 

The vehicles would not only minimise the air and sound pollution but also save several crores of rupees to the corporation. The civic body had been spending '4.4 per km towards fuel consumption charges, when the charge for EVs would be 90 paise per km.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (ESSL) would take up the project in association with vehicle manufacturers Mahindra and Mahindra and Tata Motors.
While neighbouring Andhra Pradesh had entered into a memorandum of understanding to replace 10,000 hired vehicles with EVs, Telangana restricted it to just 20.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the civic body would be in place soon and vehicles would be delivered after a month. If the corporation has to hire both vehicle and driver, it would have to pay ESSL '40,000 and if only vehicles were hired, it would be '22,000. The civic body would have to set up charging stations.

During phase I, the corporation have to hire a minimum 20 vehicles where the charging station would be provided at the headquarters and zonal and circle offices.

Top sources claimed that though the project was environmental friendly and air and sound pollution would be reduced, it would be extremely difficult to maintain the EVs as it would take a minimum four hours to charge a vehicle fully. Though there was the fast charging option where the process would take half an hour, it was expensive and not viable.

They said the fully charged vehicle can run 100-130 km and the maximum speed is 80 km per hour. Since the city did not have sufficient charging stations, the EVs would have return to charging points which would be time-consuming.

Executive Engineer (electrical) Srinivasa Chary said the vehicles would be used by those officials, including ones in the accounts wing, who spent at least eight hours in the office daily where they could charge the vehicle.

He said that as per the agreement with ESSL, the corporation had to pay '22,000 per vehicle per month when it was now spending '34,000. The difference amount could be paid towards driver wages.  About the limitations of EVs, Mr Chary said that since it was an innovative programme, there would be certain setbacks which would be resolved by setting more charging stations and having points for charging only the battery.